Remember when Halloween used to just last one day? Yeah, me too. But I think we can all agree that Halloweek is so much better (and the recovery is much longer). Halloween is clearly the best holiday, so why not have seven days of it?
The weeklong festivities can wreak serious havoc on your skin, though. All that makeup, the late nights creating your costumes, and the even later nights partying- take a serious toll. After the week is over and your wig is askew, sometimes your skin just doesn't have that luster that it did before all the Halloweek nonsense. Don't fret, these tips will help your post-halloweek skin get back on track:
1. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!
Seriously, did I mention hydrate?
My mom always tells me to drink one glass of water between beers. Well, turns out she's onto something. Alcohol and sugars (both a mainstay of Halloweek, let's be honest) both have far-reaching effects on the body, especially when it comes to hydration. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that your body rids itself of water faster than usual. The result? Dehydration.
Hopefully you've taken my mom's advice and have been drinking water all week long. If you haven't been drinking copious amounts of water- now's the time for a crash-course in liquids: for the rest of the week, stick to water and drink lots of it. Your body—and your skin—will thank you for it.
2. EXFOLIATE THINE FACE
After five nights of truly spectacular Halloween makeup, anyone's skin would start to feel a little congested. Like me, you might have fallen asleep before you washed your face one particularly crazy night. Oops. All those built-up layers of face paint and makeup can leave skin feeling a little rough and bumpy.
Enter HIGHER EDUCATION EASY A® Glycolic Acid Exfoliating Pads. Formulated with glycolic acid, they'll help gently exfoliate the outer layer of your skin, revealing a new, smoother complexion. Better yet, the exfoliation will help your skin retain moisture and better absorb the products you put on afterwards—it's a win-win situation.
If your skin type tends to be oily and acne-prone like me, then RUSH® Salicylic Acid Complexion Pads may be your holy grail exfoliation choice. Salicylic acid is a beta-hydroxy acid, which means that unlike glycolic acid, it's oil-soluble. BHAs penetrate and break up the oil sitting in your pores, loosening dead skin cells and other impurities that may have been caused by your raging Halloweek festivities.
3. MASK IT UP
If your skin is feeling extra clogged, try out Bentonite clay mask like STUDY BUDDY® Detoxifying Bentonite Clay Mask to clear things up. The natural bentonite clay soaks up oil and impurities, leaving the skin mattified. Bonus points? Two types of exfoliating acids, lactic and glycolic, help to slough away dead skin, revealing a brighter you. Pores are unclogged and appear smaller, all without dryness or irritation. Bye bye, blackheads!
4. DEPUFF
Let's face it: you probably haven't gotten a lot of sleep during Halloweek. That's fair, neither have I. By the time 9am rolls around and you have to trudge to Chem class, and you don't want to look like the living dead, even if you feel like a zombie. The solution? Depuff!
My fave weird hack: before you go to bed, put a metal spoon in your freezer. When you wake up in the morning, before you've put on any makeup, hold the spoon under your eyes for a few minutes. The frozen temperature will bring down the bags underneath your eyes.
If the spoon isn't cutting it, bring out the big dog: NIGHT OWL® Caffeinated Eye Cream. Seriously, "Night Owl" is in the name—if that isn't a hint, I don't know what is. The eye cream contains caffeine and works like a literal wake-up for your face. The caffeine depuffs and brightens, leaving you looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, even if you're snoozing internally.
5. DETOX FROM THE INSIDE OUT
While we're on the subject of caffeine, let me break the bad news to you now is the best time to lay off the coffee. I know, I'm crazy, but hear me out: alcohol and caffeine are diuretics, meaning that they make your body expel water faster. The more you drink, the more dehydrated you'll become. If you feel like a living corpse now, just wait until your fifth cup of coffee.
Caffeine also raises cortisol levels in the body—the stress hormone. And as I know too well, stress-induced breakouts are a very real thing. No, thank you. I'm sticking to herbal teas for the rest of the week, and only slathering caffeinated products under my poor raccoon eyes.
In general, now is the time to be good to your body! Coming out of a week of candy, booze, and caramel-covered apples, nothing is going to feel better than eating some leafy greens. I know, I'm starting to sound like my mom. Trust me, your body will thank you after that extra serving of kale.
6. MOISTURIZE
I know, I know. I already told you to hydrate a million times. This time- I'm talking about your poor, dehydrated skin. You need to hydrate from the inside out, yes, but you also need to pay special attention to your skin. After scrubbing off all that face paint every day of Halloweek, your skin is probably feeling tight and tad bit dehydrated. While drinking lots of water will help your body in the long run, nothing will fix dehydrated skin as fast as a multi-tasking moisturizer with hyaluronic acid and niacinamide.
Our hero? DOUBLE MAJOR® Hyaluronic Acid Gel Moisturizer, a lightweight moisturizer packed with the good stuff: Hyaluronic Acid and Niacinamide. The hyaluronic acid replenishes the moisture in your skin, binding to 1,000 times its weight in water. Then the niacinamide, my personal fave ingredient, packs a one-two punch by helping to restore the skin barrier and even out skin tone. Seriously, could niacinamide be any better?
Moisturized skin is happy & healthy skin, and you'll be surprised by how many skincare woes resolve when your skin barrier is healthy and—pardon my language—moist.
7. GET YOUR BEAUTY SLEEP
This is the one rule we all know but rarely follow: sleep! During Halloweek, you probably weren't getting much shut eye, you party animal. Honestly, between that term paper and your History exam, you're probably not getting much sleep this semester in general. It's a hard thing to do but give yourself a break! Let the week after Halloween be your time to reset and relax. You deserve it.
